These are the USS Abraham Lincoln and the USS John C. Stennis, two of the 10 nuclear-powered Nimitz-class aircraft supercarriers in service with the US Navy. They just arrived to the Strait of Hormuz as tension keeps mounting up in the area.
The Strait of Hormuz is an extremely important geographic point. Forty per cent of the world’s oil passes through this strait on its way out of the Persian Gulf. Whoever controls this pass, would be able to inflict great damage to the world’s economy.
According to the Washington Post, an Iranian lawmaker is now proposing to close the strait in retaliation against the oil embargo recently approved by the European Union, which has followed the United States in their sanctions against Iran’s nuclear program.
The arrival of these ships comes shortly after the Iranians tested new missiles capable of hitting American military bases and ships in the area. [United States Navy's Flickr]
StevoTheDevo
Tuesday, January 24, 2012 at 10:08 AMThe last shot makes me think of Star Destroyers..
Titsnass
Tuesday, January 24, 2012 at 10:21 AMAccording to their specs both ships are 1,092 ft long, but in the top photo one seems way bigger than the other. There’s one hell of a parallax distortion there!
Jase
Tuesday, January 24, 2012 at 4:38 PMI may be a wider picture thats been cropped in on which would give weird persepctive lines for framing that tight.
jayrrr
Tuesday, January 24, 2012 at 10:24 AMwtf are u doing america? u guys are such douche bags…. let me guess u will somehow come up with a “they started it first” and then 10 more years of lies and propaganda…. seriously what are trying to do?
david
Tuesday, January 24, 2012 at 10:29 AMI’m not going to argue that american foreign policy is very douchy, but don’t you think it would kind of blow if 40% of the world’s oil got blocked?
Matt
Tuesday, January 24, 2012 at 10:38 AMA non-interventionist foreign policy is the best way to go, keeping strong trade and improving friendship with these countries.
Roland
Tuesday, January 24, 2012 at 10:53 AMRight… and we sing Kumbayah whilst we do this.
lol
Mac
Tuesday, January 24, 2012 at 11:10 AMMatt… strong trade and improved friendship… Is this how you’d stand up to someone who stole your lunch money? I’d knock him out and take it back.
America has fought some really stupid wars but it doesn’t mean they should park their military and never fight again. There’s a time and place for everything.
MotorMouth
Tuesday, January 24, 2012 at 12:57 PMWhat? Do you think that everyone has the right to do whatever the hell they want? Grow up. I don’t understand why the US puts up with as much krap as it does. Someone ought to nuke Iran back to the Stone Age before they start doing it to the rest of us.
Ozoneocean
Tuesday, January 24, 2012 at 1:52 PMThat argument is illogical and a little insane.
Telextial
Tuesday, January 24, 2012 at 3:23 PMA little Cold War, certainly.
James Mac
Tuesday, January 24, 2012 at 5:58 PMMeh, gotta nuke sumthin.
Greg
Tuesday, January 24, 2012 at 10:53 AMAmerica F&^K Yeah!!!!!
vin
Tuesday, January 24, 2012 at 11:00 AM‘nuclear powered’… i dont get this at all?!?
surely it doesn’t imply that America has weapons of mass destruction?!?
SF
Tuesday, January 24, 2012 at 12:39 PMAre you serious? The engine runs on nuclear power
Dv
Tuesday, January 24, 2012 at 12:40 PMThe Ship is actually powered by a mini nuclear reactor instead of Diesel :) hence they can stay out at sea for years and years if need be (of course theres a restriction to food and other supplies).
Symo
Tuesday, January 24, 2012 at 1:18 PM“Restriction” – term is use loosely as they can fly in a hell of a lot of supplies.
matteb
Tuesday, January 24, 2012 at 1:50 PMwow. just wow. on a gadget website and everything. People who comment that dumb should be banned.
chugs
Tuesday, January 24, 2012 at 11:08 AMThere is a great film called “Threads” which describes in surgical/documentary terms the effects of large scale thermonuclear war.
The event that triggered it; Iran. In this film though its the Soviets that invade. Iran sits on 1/3 of the worlds remaining, accessible, Gas and Oil. It also sits on the Strait of Hormuz. Whomever controls Iran will continue to have fuel when the rest of the world descends back into the stone age. Unless the powers that be step back it would appear that we are on course for open global conflict.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Threads
monkeymind
Tuesday, January 24, 2012 at 12:36 PMOne of the most chilling things I have ever seen.
Inform
Tuesday, January 24, 2012 at 11:45 AM“Whoever controls this pass, would be able to inflict great damage to the world’s economy.”
So who gave USA the right to “control” it – Tired of this BS, it gets worse and worse as decades go by. Always assuming that everyone will agree with what they do becuase its for “the greater good”….
I think we all know the US…. I mean.. errr… “the great good” should just look after there own soil.
Mike
Tuesday, January 24, 2012 at 6:14 PMSo call you local MP and tell them, we should not have the US as allies.
AC
Tuesday, January 24, 2012 at 11:45 AMThe USS John Stamos? Oh…my mistake!
Foles
Tuesday, January 24, 2012 at 11:59 AMHands up who doesn’t recall Iran’s very public commitment to destroying both Israel and America with nuclear fire? Sure you can argue a very good point it’s all about oil but as soon as Iran has confirmed it has ‘weaponised’ uranium Israel will nuke them hands down and that is from their public statement made way back when Israel successfully bombed Iraq’s nuclear reactors thus halting their fledgling nuclear program. It’s all in the history books if you care to look. Best way to end all this…alternative fuel! Make oil redundant and we will be set free.
Ozoneocean
Tuesday, January 24, 2012 at 1:47 PMNo one because that never happened. Not in reality, not in a dream. It just never actually occurred, “Iran” never had that commitment, not even that idiot Armadinjad.
Most Iranian politicians have always said the US was opposing them and is a problem for them etc, but that’s actually true: The US has always hated Iran and many in their military and government have always had an open commitment to destroy Iran.
Armidinijad has said things about Israel being a problem in the region, which is true (it is), and that the Palestinians have a right over the country and it will eventually disappear and become Palestine again- words to that effect and that was the meaning.
That wouldn’t be a great outcome for anyone really, but it wasn’t a threat, it’s what most Muslim peoples in the Middle east have wanted for the last 50 years.
The trouble is that extremely dangerous right war-warmongering fascists reinterpret anything that comes from Iran as justification for murder rape, pilliage and holocaust like destruction of the entire country.
Mike
Tuesday, January 24, 2012 at 6:16 PMSo now you want to rewrite history.
Dan
Wednesday, January 25, 2012 at 1:24 AMErr, actually, Khomeini, Khameini and Admadinejad have all stated that Israel should be wiped off the map. Although, Admadinejad was just quoting Khomeini at the time. For reference:
NY Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/26/world/africa/26iht-iran.html
BBC: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/4378948.stm
Wall Street Journal: http://www.danielpipes.org/113/arabs-still-want-to-destroy-israel
CNN: http://archives.cnn.com/2000/WORLD/meast/12/15/mideast.iran.reut/
Yes, I know, they’re western sources but I think I’d rather trust a boad cross-section of the world’s media that an Iranian or Muslim outlet.
It’s also well known that Iran funds Hamas and Hezbollah. Even Abbas, president of the Palestinian Authority has confirmed this, though I’m having trouble finding non-Israeli references.
Oh, and lastly, one of the usual accusations made by pro-Iranian groups is that the peace-loving imams have been mistranslated. They never said “Death to Israel”, they simply called for “pious peaceful muslims to persuade jews to leave by giving them chocolate and flowers”. My Iranian muslim wife, on the other hand, can understand the native Farsi, and assures me that Iranian leaders have quite regularly called for Israel to be destroyed.
bastardo
Tuesday, January 24, 2012 at 1:08 PMIf you walked up to an atheist and cut their leg off, what comes outta their mouth? Oh GOD !!!! Thats what America is like at the moment. Trash talk it all you want and hate on it but in times of need every one has their hands out. Yeah I fully agree there has been some decisions and involvement we should have stayed away from. But not many people have the full stories on what is going on and probably won’t for years to come. Im living overseas at the moment and constantly here how America is shit and they didn’t help anyone during both world wars and going on about stuff like that. Educate yourselves a bit more and make informed comments.
Johnny P
Tuesday, January 24, 2012 at 1:25 PMStarscream v 2 Aircraft carriers would have been a good site in the transformers movies…
SteveR
Tuesday, January 24, 2012 at 1:47 PMIf anyones interested in this potential conflict you should read this, it’s an eye opener.
http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2012/01/201211893514297629.html